Arcadia says study points to clean and low-cost lithium extraction at Bitterwasser project

Arcadia Minerals announced that the test work conducted in South Africa points to clean and low-cost extraction at Namibia's Bitterwasser lithium clay project.

Bitterwasser Project is in the Hardap Region, approximately 190 km southeast of the capital Windhoek. The project comprises four exclusive exploration licenses, EPLs 7614, 8101, 8102, 8103, and 8104.

The company said on March 20 that a sample of 800kg of Bitterwasser clays collected from auger drilling samples was subjected to bench-scale leach test work at the Chemical Engineering Department, Stellenbosch University, to determine leachability using six organic acids and sulphuric acid.

The results showed an 82.1% leachability of lithium into solution using organic acid at a temperature of 60°C with a six-hour resident time or 79.4% leachability of lithium into solution using organic acid at a temperature of 60°C with a two-hour resident time.

Furthermore, the results showed a 93.3% leachability of lithium into solution using sulphuric acid at a temperature of 60°C with a six-hour resident time or 89.0% leachability of lithium into solution using sulphuric acid at a temperature of 25°C with a two-hour resident time.

Arcadia chief executive officer Philip le Roux said the results confirm lithium recovery using sulphuric and a specific organic acid. 

Le Roux also said the results would assist in conducting further test work towards possibly producing a lithium carbonate product.

According to Le Roux, the results attained indicate beneficial recoveries at the bench scale, confirming the lab scale work we had conducted previously. 

"It is encouraging that the organic acid resulted in a low recovery of magnesium and calcium, given these metals are known to be detrimental to the further refinement of lithium carbonate and the production of a battery-grade product," he said.